


Queen of Spades

by maggiemerc



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, Femslash, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-11
Updated: 2013-02-12
Packaged: 2017-11-28 23:03:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/679865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maggiemerc/pseuds/maggiemerc
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rumpelstiltskin’s apprentice, Regina, meets another in the long line portal jumpers. She steals whatever she desires, but always for a price.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Flush

She was the second knave to bow to her and by far the most memorable. 

“I heard his apprentice was a queen,” she purred from across the room, “I came to offer greeting.” She bowed deeply, like a lady would, but she wasn’t a lady. She wore all leather and walked with a man’s swagger and the smile on her lips was far too clever to grace a lady’s lip.

Regina waved her off with a dismissive hand. More than one portal jumper tried to ply her with smiles and kind words. They saw her as Rumpelstiltskin’s plaything and naturally expected that right to extend to them as well.

She was curt. In the palace and in Rumpelstiltskin’s home it was always effective. “Take whatever gold he’s promised you and be on your way.” 

She returned to her book. It dealt with transformative magic, the one art Rumpelstiltskin had no skill in. He never admitted as much. “I’m the Dark One dearie. What’s the point of the name if I can’t make ‘em quiver in their boots with it hmm?” He never waited for her to answer. He was, after all, the Dark One. Immortal but with precious little time it seemed.

The portal jumper bustled about the room taking her time as though she’d never had the chance before. She poked at Regina’s potions and gave the empty spinning wheel a hearty turn before finally kneeling beside the pile of spun gold thread and filling her bag to the brim with it.

Regina tried not to track her movement. She was preparing a spell that would allow her to take another person’s form. It was the first step to other transformations. In time she’d be able to turn into a cat or dog or rat or maybe even a dragon. She’d heard rumors of a sorceress who could do that. It sounded…interesting.

“What are you reading,” the knave whispered in her ear.

She yelped in surprise and slipped from her stool, avoiding a fall only because the woman grasped her by the elbow and steadied her with a firm hand that was far too kind. 

“Careful,” she said smoothly, still smiling like all the portal jumpers did. They always smiled. They were always kind. They always lied. “Never trust a portal jumper,” Rumpelstiltskin would muse, “they’ll always leave you in the end.”

Regina pushed her away with her free hand and settled herself back on her stool. “I’m sure you’re a fascinating conversationalist,” she said haughtily, “but I don’t have the time.”

The woman’s front pressed against Regina’s back as she peered at the book over her shoulder. “I can see that. Transmutation. Rough stuff.”

She snapped the book close and turned to look aghast at the woman, who didn’t even have the decency to vacate Regina’s personal space. “What on earth would **you** know of transmutation?”

“Met a woman once who turned all her enemies into animals.” That smile was almost…charming. “Spent two months with my friends all as pigs because of her.”

Her lips were quite pink. Plump. Regina found herself staring at them and remembering that she disliked all portal jumpers and never trusted them. She leaned in knowing that even the wife of a king could be intimidating in close quarters—Rumpelstiltskin had taught her that. 

“And she just changed them back on a whim?”

“No. I drank a potion that protected me from her spells,” her eyes were like nimble fingers, prying Regina apart with a glance. “And she was so enchanted she took me to bed.” She leaned in so close that with a slip of her tongue Regina could taste her. “And in the throws of passion I made her promise to free all my friends.” 

Regina made sure one hand kept her steady. She dug her fingers into the table top and if she’d dare look she knew there would be indentations in the wood. Her other hand skated up the woman’s side before laying flat against her chest. She gave her a gentle push. “That story is of Odysseus and Circe.”

“They changed my name.”

“It’s centuries old.”

Again those eyes raked over Regina, “And who’s to say I’m not?”

Regina leaned in now, but not to whisper in the knave’s ear. They came nearly nose to nose. It would be but a tilt of the head. A brush of a cheek against a cheek. Lips could so easily touch. Unleash an ardor in her that she hadn’t known since…

Daniel.

She didn’t tilt her head. Didn’t lean in that close. Kept her hand firmly pressed against the knave’s beating heart. 

God how it thrummed against her fingertips. Had there ever been one to beat so fiercely at her touch?

“You’re a liar,” she assured the knave. “It’s what your kind does.”

Her whole palm now was hot against the bare skin of the woman’s chest. How had she gotten so close? “We steal too.” With her eyes on Regina’s mouth her intent was unmistakable.

“Even from a wicked sorceress and queen?”

Leopold kissed like a father. A disturbing thought because no father should take his daughter to bed. He was so paternal. He’d roll off her afterwards and sigh and pat her thigh like she’d been a good little girl and then he’s ask after Snow.

The knave kissed like no other. Her lips were as clever as her tongue. She was gentle and forceful in the same instant and she smiled against Regina’s mouth before drifting just out of reach. And Regina followed. She involuntarily leaned into the space the knave vacated because the kiss had been far too sweet to end so quickly.

She obliged Regina too. Kissing her again and coaxing her mouth open with a swipe of her tongue. She knelt a little, between Regina’s legs, giving Regina all the power. Her fingers danced across Regina’s thighs but she never pressed. Even as her tongue ravaged Regina’s mouth she was letting Regina somehow take the lead.

And they kissed and kissed and kissed until the flame in her lantern guttered out and her lips were bruised and her breath was scarce.

The knave’s nose gently nuzzled against Regina’s and a finger twined through a lock of hair that had fallen from Regina’s braid. “I think I have a new payment to request for my services.”

“Really,” she asked. 

“A kiss from a queen is a greater boon than all the gold in my satchel.”

“You’re a fool.”

“Kiss me again and I’ll be whatever card in the deck you desire.” Her mouth trailed light kisses along Regina’s cheek before settling hot on her neck. “Your fool,” she said with a nip. 

Regina tilted her head and hissed when the woman’s teeth grazed the quick pulse on her neck. “My knave.”

“Your Jack,” she sighed.

She was the second knave to ever kneel before the Queen. But the first to try and steal her heart.


	2. Royal Flush

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oops. I made another. Three more to go. This one might push the T rating.

A month and a day after Regina left Rumpelstiltskin’s tutelage she appeared. The first time sitting on the window sill, leaning against the frame and relishing each bite of an apple from Regina’s tree.

“You found me,” she said in hushed awe.

She wiped juice away with her sleeve and smiled in that rakish way that only worked on her. “You’re the queen. I hardly think you’re hard to find.”

Her steps were quick on the stone, crossing the distance as fast as if she’d used magic. “My husband—“

“Is not your master.” So sure.

“He’s the king.”

The core of the apple was tossed mindlessly through the window and Jack swung her legs around. With a push of her hands she could propel herself forward and into Regina’s arms. Or she could roll back lightly and disappear over the window’s edge.

“And you are the Queen. Your authority is the only I recognize.”

They waged gentle wars. Cutting remarks and clever wordplay were their weapons. It was a game. One which they both understood implicitly. One would give and the other would take and the next day the lines would be redrawn and the battle waged anew. 

Regina surrendered first. With a smile that spoke of feelings neither allowed in their dalliances. But Jack chose to interpret it differently and then stepped into Regina’s space. Her hands settled on Regina’s waist above the flair of an outrageous gown.

“I thought we’d be through.” Her hand lifted to play with the cords of Jack’s tunic. “I had to leave so suddenly and—“

“And I move between worlds. What possible challenge could movement from one castle to the next hold?”

“And Him?” She wouldn’t say his name. Couldn’t. His name was an invitation and one Rumpelstiltskin would gladly accept.

Jack laughed. Dropped a kiss on Regina’s cheek. “An employer. Just one of many.”

“He’s—“

Those hands squeezed her waist. The worrying would be set aside. The fears would disappear in soft kisses that bordered on affectionate.

And then someone would pursue someone else. This time it was Jack, cupping Regina’s face so tenderly she might scream and deepening a kiss she’d missed for a month and a day. Her tongue slipped past her lips and she invaded every part of Regina. Found every secret with her mouth and pushed them deeper into shadows.

They would not question what it was or why a month and a day had felt like ten years. They would only sigh and moan and Jack’s nimble fingers would find every thread and pull until the whole dress and Regina too was unwound.

“I missed you,” she murmured between wet kisses down Regina’s bare throat.

Regina’s hands found purchase in Jack’s tangled brown hair and she guided her like a horse on reigns. The sweet pleasure she’d known since that first day in Rumpelstiltskin’s library wound up inside of her—growing taunter and taunter with each kiss and bite and lingering taste. Until fingers found **her** thread and stroked her to an all too uncommon unravelling.

“I missed this,” she finally said later, when clothes had been forgotten and a fine film of drying sweat covered them both and Jack looked up from where she’d been resting her head on Regina’s bare thigh and grinned.

She ran her finger across those leering lips. Her lover didn’t tease her or catch a fingertip in her teeth. Her bright eyes tracked Regina and she was still as though she was mindful of all the things that Regina could not control. ‘So take this’ her inaction seemed to say. ‘Have what others steal.’

She tugged on a few strands of hair and Jack climbed up her body in one fluid movement. “I have a trip to another land,” she said with a kiss to the shoulder. “One where gods walk among men and they all prepare for an end of days.”

“Sounds like my wedding night.” A joke. Dark. Morbid. But Jack laughed. Jack always laughed. She leapt between worlds. Saw them at their beginnings and at their ends. She’d witnessed so much of the span of life. There was never grief for Jack. Only a laugh at the fates’ many threads.

“They call it Ragnarok. A great final battle where all is lost. The world burns. Lives are torn asunder. Everything is ash.” She splayed her open hand on Regina’s belly. Her thumb rubbed familiar patterns on her skin. “And then, when there is only unfathomable emptiness and despair, two mere humans will peek out from the destruction and start it all anew.”

She paused Jack’s wandering hand. Their fingers entwined and Regina looked up at the ceiling. It was far more vibrant with a Jack in her bed rather than a King.

“Hope.”

Jack straddled her waist. Wanton and warm. “Tell me Regina, how would you like to see the end of the world?”

A world with no Snow White. Where Daniel was not lost. Where her mother was not vile. Where her father was valiant. Where there was only her and Jack and that beautiful smile.

It was cruel how happiness trickled through her veins. There was wickedness in her joy. Evil fingers of glee digging into her heart and suffusing herself with something as terrible as the mentor whose name she could never utter.

A puff of air on her cheek and Jack loomed over her curious and, for once, not so knowing of what rose dark and terrible in her thoughts. There was only that smile that led to other worlds. “Well,” she asked.

“I’m to take Snow riding.” Leopold and Snow so loved her horsemanship. 

“Impart your wisdom my Queen. Teach my daughter all you know.” She’d tried that once and it had ended with a stable boy growing cool at her feet.

“Teach the girl to stay astride in the morning. And in the evening you and I will dance at the apocalypse.”

“What shall we wear?”

“Joy and ash and that jeweled bustier your husband meant as a gift for his first wife.”

“You’re a terrible person Jack.”

“You’ll look far prettier in it then she ever could.” Her head tilted, like she didn’t know Regina’s answers to her questions. “Will you though? Join me in watching the twilight of another world’s gods?”

She laughed. “Of course dear. I’ll even bake a pie.”


End file.
